Nick Offerman (left) plays a drug dealer to Sam Elliott's cowboy actor in "The Hero." MUST CREDIT: The Orchard

Nick Offerman (left) plays a drug dealer to Sam Elliott's cowboy actor in "The Hero." MUST CREDIT: The Orchard

Photo: Beth Dubber / The Orchard

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A cowboy actor in his 70s (Sam Elliott) romances a youngcomic (Laura Prepon) in “The Hero.”

A cowboy actor in his 70s (Sam Elliott) romances a youngcomic (Laura Prepon) in “The Hero.”

Photo: The Orchard

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Sam Elliott in "The Hero." MUST CREDIT: Beth Dubber, The Orchard

Sam Elliott in "The Hero." MUST CREDIT: Beth Dubber, The Orchard

Photo: Beth Dubber / The Orchard

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This image released by The Orchard shows Laura Prepon, left, and Sam Elliott in a scene from, "The Hero." (Beth Dubber/The Orchard via AP)

This image released by The Orchard shows Laura Prepon, left, and Sam Elliott in a scene from, "The Hero." (Beth Dubber/The Orchard via AP)

Photo: Beth Dubber, HONS / Associated Press

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- Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross in THE HERO, opening June 16 in San Francisco (Embarcadero) & San Rafael (Rafael Film Center). Expanding to other Bay Area markets on Friday, June 23. Photo courtesy of The Orchard. less

- Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross in THE HERO, opening June 16 in San Francisco (Embarcadero) & San Rafael (Rafael Film Center). Expanding to other Bay Area markets on Friday, June 23. Photo courtesy of The ... more

Photo: The Orchard

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“The Hero” tells the story of a cowboy actor coming close to the end of an almost long but not-quite-long-enough life. The grim medical diagnosis comes in the first minute or two. Think of it as getting the worst part over with, so we can all enjoy the rest of the movie.

The film stars Sam Elliott and was clearly tailored for him. He plays an actor noted for his distinctive mustache and deep, rich voice. When we first meet him, he is recording a voiceover for a barbecue sauce commercial, but the death sentence (the diagnosis is pretty close to definitive) forces him to face his existence, to either look for meaning in his life or to work strenuously to avoid thinking at all.

“The Hero” was directed and co-written by Brett Haley, a young filmmaker who is making a specialty of early old age. As in “I’ll See You in My Dreams,” which starred Blythe Danner, the film features a vaguely depressed person of around 70, who is coming close to a dependency on substances.

In “I’ll See You in My Dreams,” Danner was leaning a little too hard on the Chardonnay. In “The Hero,” Elliot — or rather western icon Lee Hayden — is pretty close to a pothead.

But then things change. Just when he thinks there’s nothing left to do but get high and die, a reason to live comes through the door in the form of Laura Prepon, as a lively, gorgeous woman who just happens to like old guys.

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Lee doesn’t even have to do anything. He’s just sitting on the couch at a friend’s house, getting stoned, with one foot and four toes in the grave. And then … she walks in.

To talk about the story in “The Hero” in such blunt terms makes it sound silly. But in the actual experience, it’s not silly at all, which tells us something about Haley as a writer-director.

He knows what he can get away with. He knows what his actors can sell. He knows how to create an emotional universe in which this kind of improbable thing doesn’t seem a matter of screenwriting convenience, but destiny.

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The Hero

★★★

Quick take: Everyday heroics

There’s an alertness to texture here, to the beauty of the landscape, to the sight of the ocean and the sky, as though the audience were being forced to notice a world that’s slipping away from us.

Likewise, Haley’s direction encourages the viewer to apply that alertness to the human interactions, to the ebb and flow of conversation, to looks and gestures. Everything becomes just a little more important.

As in “I’ll See You in My Dreams,” in which he played a supporting role, Elliott suggests a depth of insight under the genial façade, a sad philosophy that never needs to be voiced, and yet is understood.

Prepon, in a role that could have been a mere symbol of the life force, makes the young lover into someone specific and winning — someone with a gift for pleasure, but with her own unspoken pain. It should be mentioned also that Katharine Ross, Elliott’s real-life wife, appears in the film as Lee’s ex-wife, but only in two brief scenes.

Like “I’ll See You in My Dreams,” “The Hero” is a film about renewal, about an unexpected rebirth that doesn’t come easy and can never be complete but that represents a recommitment to life, nonetheless. Ultimately, I think “I’ll See You in My Dreams” is the superior movie, because it doesn’t rely on the device of a dying protagonist, but they’re both a piece and both deserve to be seen.

In “The Hero,” as elsewhere, Haley really is dealing with the subject of heroism, but the kind of heroism not usually found in movies, the heroism of daily life.